Cutlass Trilogy

Saturday, August 4, 2012

The Swing of Things

Well, I did not make my August 1st deadline, however, I am not too surprised, as days really do go by fast, lol. So, my new deadline is the 20th. At least it's within the month, right?

Once I finish my draft, I'll be posting about my editing/beta reader adventures, then onto more query letter posts cause we all love those right?

I wanted to talk about this rewrite in depth. I know everyone probably knows how bitter-sweet it was to let go of my old draft. It was something I had nurtured and attempted to patch up for years, and then one night, I decided to let it go thanks to a very good and insightful friend. At that point, I wanted to burn everything with it. Everything.

But I didn't.

And it was good that I didn't. I respect myself more as a writer after having gone through such a bitter 'breakup' with my old draft.

What has happened so far in this new draft?

1. It is more focus.

A few months back I wrote about how I was confused about my genre. My characters were too old, but was my writing adult enough to be considered Adult Fantasy? Then there was word count--I had too much story.

Now that I am rewriting, I am conscious of all these things. The ages of my characters are appropriate, my writing is for a YA audience, and my word count won't get too high.

2. I stopped worrying about what people would like.

Yeah. I didn't realize I did this before, but I found that I was constantly thinking about how people would react to something in my book instead of thinking about my story.

Now, I'm not saying that thinking about how people will react to your book is bad, I'm saying that while writing your book, I think it is imperative that you think of the story first, and then the reception after. Basically, take it one step at a time.

3. ...Speaking of steps...

The MOST VALUABLE thing I have learned: outlines are your friend. And you don't have to stick to the original outline or anything, but having a direction for your characters to go and having a story for your characters to follow is very helpful.

And don't think of outlines as your enemies, or as cheating, because it's not cheating...it's just not. I'm not sure why I thought they were so bad.

Okay, as far as job news goes: I get to write the newsletter!! I didn't have a very cool one this month, but I'm hoping September is pretty epic. :D

8 comments:

I've been given one of the most exciting writing projects ever, and I'm having a hard time with it because as you said I keep worrying about whether people will like it or if it'll even be accepted at all. I know that I need to just let go of all that and write, though. Really can't control such external factors. I also agree about the helpfulness of outlines. Doing one for this allowed me to see where I was trying to go with it and to organize my thoughts more neatly. Now we'll see if I can just make myself finish the thing and send it off, letting the editors edit instead of trying to get every word correct! Smiles All the best with your work also.

Good luck, John! I'm sure it will be awesome! It really is tough to stop thinking about what others will like or dislike. :/ I mean, that's our writing and we really put ourselves and our work on the line when people read it.

Congratulations on the diploma! That's awesome. :)I was just thinking about you the other day and wondering how things were going. Glad to hear it's going well! I love your characters and can't wait to hear how it all turns out!